Special Equipment File

Miscellaneous Items

Choate Letter Opener/Knife

Cost: $45.00
This six-inch long letter opener is composed of a fiberglass-filled plastic and can be given a razor sharp edge. Manufactured by Choate Machine Tool Company, it can go through a security metal detector undetected. It has characteristics of a standard hunting knife in combat. The device can come as a letter opener or knife, but each has the same characteristics for combat.

Comb Saw

Cost: $15.00
This useful device looks like an ordinary black comb, but has sharpened titanium-tipped teeth that allow the comb to be used as a saw. The comb body itself is made of lightweight aluminum. It can saw through metal if given enough time, much like a metal-cutting saw. This device is ideal for some escape attempts, assuming the comb is not confiscated.

Nailclipper Caltrop

Cost: $5.00
This device is extremely common in the field, and will be recognized by pretty much any agent. It is best used to delay pursuit by placing in an enemy’s path. By throwing the nailclipper against a wall or floor, the specially-treated steel springs into a caltrop position, allowing one spike perpendicular to the ground at all times. It will puncture a normal tire, as well as do the equivalent damage of a .22 caliber round to one’s foot if stepped on.

Aerosol Can Grenade

Cost: $75.00
Appearing as a normal aerosol can, this classic device is actually an explosive grenade. Usually the “spray” button assembly is pulled off to activate the primer (like pulling the pin in a standard grenade). The device will explode in ten seconds (it can be modified for different delays) and is designed to be thrown. Damage is normally the same as a standard fragmentation grenade, although special grenades can be devised, such as flash, incendiary, or smoke grenades. The can usually has commercial brand-name markings for its type of aerosol spray.

Aerosol Can Flame Thrower

Cost: $25.00
This weapon is actually nothing more than a brand-name marked aerosol can filled with thick highly flammable liquid that shoots in a stream. When the spray button is pressed, the stream is released and ignited simultaneously, resulting in a miniature flame thrower with about a five-foot range. It contains enough fuel for five one-second bursts.

Halothane Stream Lighter

Cost: $40.00
Originally implemented by the British Secret Service, this lighter fires a stream of halothane eighteen inches. Halothane is a fast sleep-inducing chemical that is used in the agency’s sleeping gas capsules. One burst of halothane will have the same effect as a sleeping gas capsule on the victim. Since the stream is liquid in form, the agent need not wear a gas mask, though a fairly quick departure will be necessary. The liquid itself gives off sleep-inducing fumes.

X-Ray, Metal Detection Lining

Cost: $60.00/sq. foot of lining
This useful innovation was originally developed by the Israeli Military. It is actually a lining that gives a false image to airport security devices. Using contoured surfaces and strategic areas of higher and lower density, airport personnel will only see items common to the item being shielded. This lining is ideal for attach? cases, but can be used on suitcases, duffel bags, and even garment bags, among other things. Assassins often use the lining to hide an H&K MP5 submachine gun briefcase.

Diskette Electromagnet

Cost: $10.00
Used with frequency for the last seven years, this device was first conceived and designed by the CIA. It appears as a normal computer diskette (although a bit heavier) yet contain a very powerful electromagnet that is activated when the diskette in popped into a disk drive. The result is the loss of all data on any hard drive within twelve inches of the device. RAM will also be erased, and can actually be damaged in some instances. Any other diskettes in the one-foot range will also be purged. CDs will not be affected. The device is usually only effective with standard desktop PCs, and then only if there are no security implementations in place such as magnetic shielding, or disk drive locks. The magnet will only affect local drives, not networked drives on another station elsewhere.

Diskette/CD Thermite

Cost: $70.00
This destructive device is a normal-looking computer diskette or CD-ROM that contains a thin layer of thermite. A special detonation primer is ignited by inserting the disk, which will ignite the thermite. Within five seconds, the thermite will burn down through whatever computer parts lie below it. If a hard drive is positioned below the disk, it will be destroyed and unrecoverable. However, if the computer is not arranged in this fashion the hard drive will be unaffected, though other parts might be destroyed. In essence, the thermite will burn through anything in the computer positioned below the disk–even the computer’s casing.

Soft Drink Can Grenade

Cost: $70.00
An innovation explored by Interpol in the 1980s, the exploding soft drink can is the type of device to be used in only specific scenarios. To get the grenade, the agent usually uses a vending machine containing the explosive device planted by an earlier undercover agent. The device can also be carried, though as a standard size drink can, it can be a bit bulky. Interpol versions contain soft drink as well. The device does standard grenade damage.

Sleeve Knife

Cost: $75.00
This weapon is a specially designed knife made to load into spring-release sheath that conceals under a sleeve on the wrist. It is best used with a sport or suit jacket, although a standard long-sleeve shirt will suffice. With a press of a button on the unit (pressed through the shirt sleeve), the knife blade shoots out, much like a push-button knife. It extends all the way into the user’s hand, and with a simple twist of the wrist, the knife will disattach from the sheath completely, leaving the knife in the agent’s hand. The whole extension/release takes one phase. With a standard device (without modifications), the knife cannot be thrown. It has the combat characteristics of a hunting knife.

Sleeve Concealable Crossbow

Cost: $100.00
The Sleeve Crossbow is a device that has been improved upon over many years. It is a foldable pistol-crossbow assembly that fits under a shirt sleeve, in a special sheath that attaches to the arm much like the sleeve knife sheath. It will only fit in the sleeve in folded form, but can be already be loaded in such a position. The unit takes one phase to pull out of the sleeve, and one to unfold. In unfolded form, the weapon is, for all practical purposes, a pistol crossbow.

Fire Extinguisher Flame-thrower

Cost: $150.00
This device modification is somewhat ironic in that it produces an effect exactly opposite of what it was originally intended for. The weapon is a fire extinguisher that has been filled with highly flammable liquid. Due to special modifications such as treated metal and a replaced steel fireproof spray valve, it can be fired as a flame-thrower, having a range of fifteen feet. There is enough fuel for ten one shot bursts. By pressing an electric ignition switch, the fuel is ignited at the valve. This will take one phase to do before the unit can actually be fired.
The device is best used when it has already been planted in a standard fire extinguisher well beforehand, making it an easily accessible weapon to an agent who is in the room.

Smoking Gun

Cost: $80.00/device
This classic exotic weapon was used extensively by Interpol as well as MI6 throughout the 1980s. With the decreasing popularity of smoking in the US., the device is now used more frequently abroad where smoking is still common. This weapon works by containing a bullet, which is fired several seconds after lighting the device. It may be a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. An aluminum tube within the cigarette (or other device) serves as a barrel. When lit, a special filament will burn that holds a tiny hammer in place. Once the filament is gone the hammer throws and the bullet is fired. Typically, the device has about a fifteen second delay. The device always uses a .22 caliber bullet. Combat statistics are as follows:

PWV

PB

S

M

L

WS

RT

AM

CST

DEC

A

C

F

P

R

HWV

14

0

-50

X

X

A

1

1

80

0

1

6

1

3

1

2

Gas Stogie

Cost: $40.00
This innovation contains one charge of sleeping gas, and simply releases the gas into the mouth when smoked. Since the smoking device looks, feels, smells, and tastes exactly as normal, the victim will not even be aware of the situation until he or she wakes up from the gas. Undercover investigators frequently use this device by offering the victim a gas-releasing cigarette. The device can be made with any smoking device, although it seems to be most effective as a cigarette or cigar for undercover purposes.

Crutch SMG

Cost: $1000.00
This weapon is essentially a 9mm submachine gun built to look like a standard aluminum crutch. By twisting a ring on the leg shaft, a trigger is extended. The crutch itself will hold six rounds, but has a hidden magazine slot. The magazine holds 30 rounds. The weapon takes three phases to ready, and adding the magazine takes the normal reloading time, which is four phases. The weapon characteristics are as follows:

PWV

PB

S

M

L

WS

RT

AM

CST

DEC

A

C

F

P

R

HWV

75

0

-25

-120

X

BA

04

6/30

640

NC*

10

0

5

5

1

12

*=The “NC” corresponds to the barrel length, however, the weapon is concealable by nature. In this way, DEC value is 0.

Bug Detector

Cost: $155.00
Using this hand-held device will determine where an electronic bug is hidden in a room. The device will hum at a higher and higher pitch as it nears the location of the bug.An alternative design is a vibrating detector, vibrating more noticeably as one nears the bug.This option allows an agent to locate the bug without alerting the eavesdroppers to the detection equipment.The device runs on one nine-volt battery.

Bug Disorientor

Cost: $200
This device actually renders any bugs within a 25’x25′ area useless, by giving off a ultrasonic pitch that overloads the bug’s circuitry.The device is about the size of a small transistor radio and is usually implemented by placement in the center of the room during the confidential conversation.The device does nothing to determine the whereabouts of the bug. Any eavesdropper listening in on a disoriented bug will hear loud static and distortion.

Dead-Drop Spike

Cost: $25.00
This basic implementation is often used by the CIA for “drop-off” operations.It is a hollow 1.5 inch diameter spike that has a cap on the top and is completely air-tight and water-tight.It can rest in the ground or water (such as a stream-bed) indefinitely without its contents being affected.Its spike design allows for quick concealment in soil, for later recovery by the original agent or a receiving agent.The spike is often painted a similar color as its surroundings to further camoflage its location in water.